Uttam Kumar’s tryst with Hindi Cinema

When Uttam Kumar passed away, Suchitra Se wailed, “Now whom am I going to work with?” The  two were to Bengali cinema what Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn were to Hollywood.

The joke about Uttam Kumar was, he didn’t have to go to Bollywood, Bollywood came to him. Filmmakers and actresses, especially the Bengali ones, were falling over one another to work with him. But Uttam Kumar was happy being the king of his own domain. He was, and he remains, to Bengali cinema, the ultimate Superstar, the Mahanayak, so much so that in Shakti Samanta’s Amar Prem, the brief to Rajesh Khanna was, “Just copy Uttam Kumar from the  original film (Nishi Padma)”.

And Khanna did! Such was the sway that Uttam Kumar had in Bollywood that filmmakers were  tripping over one another to cast him his Bollywood debut. Composer-producer Hemant Kumar Mukherjee thought he would get the  privilege of launching Uttam Kumar in Hindi as they were close friends. Hemant wanted to make Bees Saal Baad with Uttam and Waheeda Rehman.

To Hemant’s shock, Uttam said no to the offer, probably because the heroine had more to do in the screenplay. Prior to Bees Saal Baad, Raj Kapoor wanted  to cast Uttam in the Bengali version of Jagte Raho while Raj himself was to do the Hindi version of the film. Uttam had declined the offer. He also declined to do the role that Rajendra Kumar ultimately did in Raj Kapoor’s Sangam.

He was finally launched in Hindi with much fanfare opposite the reigning queen Vyjayanthimala in 1967 in the film Chotisi Mulaqaat. It was a remake of Uttam’s Bengali film Agni Pareeksha. The Hindi remake, a very poor adaptation, was directed by Ajoy Kar, who also directed Uttam Kumar in his last Hindi film Bandi in 1978, a fairytale mishmash of palatial intrigue and  romantic frolic where Uttam was hopelessly mismatched with Sulakshana Pandit.

His best Hindi films were with Sharmila Tagore as his heroine. Sharmila had done Satyajit Ray’s Nayak in Bengali with Uttam. When years later, one of her favourite directors Shakti Samanta offered her the Hindi-Bengali bi-lingual  Amanush, with Uttam, she readily agreed. The film was a success and is  remembered to this day for Uttam singing Shyamal Mitra’s hit compositions  Dil aisa kisini mera toda and Na pooch koi humen zahar kyon pee raha hoon.

Shakti Samanta later made another Hindi-Bengali bi-lingual Anand Ashram  bringing the same, Uttam-Sharmila pair together, with much less success.  Sharmila also did Bhim Sain’s Dooriyan with Uttam. She considers it one of her  most important films, as it showed  the heroine as a career woman grappling with domestic and professional chores.

Years earlier, Uttam had said no to Hemant Mukherjee’s Bees Saal Baad with Waheeda Rehman as she had more to do in the script. Years later, he happily  did Dooriyaan with Sharmila Tagore, although she had much more to do. The  other Hindi film that Uttam Kumar agreed to do was Gulzar’s Kitaab, where Vidya Sinha and Master Rajoo had more to do than he did.

Uttam Kumar’s last Hindi film, also the last film of his career, the little-seen whodunit Plot No 5, where the Mahanayak played a serial killer. It was released  after Uttam’s death. Sadly, his only success in Hindi was Amanush. Otherwise, his tryst with Hindi cinema remained a choti si mulaqat.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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